Sega Lays Off 20% Of San Francisco Staff

The company's strategy is to organize its North American operations into three units under the umbrella of Sega Holdings: 1) Sega Entertainment will be responsible for original content 2) Sega Sports will develop the company's sports games 3) Sega Corporate will handle corporate, sales and distribution functions for the other two units. Unrelated to that announcement, the company's stock shot up yesterday, due to speculation that either Microsoft or EA will step in and try to outbid Sammy's offer for Sega. Sega and Sammy investors have already expressed displeasure with the companies' merger plans, shedding shares and driving both stocks down to record lows since the merger was announced last month. Sega has been valued as an acquisition at between $1.2-$1.5 billion.